Not when they are employed, to any large degree.
Most are very proud and don't take as much as these numbers that get thrown around indicate.
Also, these numbers do not include the contributions through taxes for goods, services and property taxes through rent.
The numbers on both sides of the issue are stretched and the answer lies in the middle.
The proposal calls for steady employment to qualify. That one statement should defeat most economic fears. With employment requirements the numbers are just wrong. New estimates need to be done, and if/when they are the pucker factor should be eliminated to a great degree if not entirely.
Do you really believe that a guy making the kind of wages paid to unskilled laborers can support a family without some kind of assistance? No public housing, no food stamps, no free medical care, no free daycare, no anything?
If so, I need to take some home economics lessons from guest workers, for sure.
Nor do the anti-immigration fanatics ever mention the lower costs of goods and services facilitated by the lower wages earned by immigrants.
Go ahead and triple or maybe even quadruple the wage of a lettuce picker in order to make the job attractive to Americans, and watch the cost of lettuce rise beyond belief.
Then proportionately, the cost of that dinner salad that you get with your entree at TGI Friday's goes up, which means that the operator's cost goes up, which means that he'll have to charge more for the dinner, which means that your taxes on that meal go up, as does the amount of your tip to the waiter.